June 2013 - the terrible twos aren't so terrible

[Biscuitswithtea]

Here goes with a new thread!

Primary school teaching seems to me to mainly be about crowd management than actual teaching:) I reckon you could do about an hour a day and cover most of what they do in five. I think that you absolutely do have to get them out and socialising though, but there are many home ed groups around.

So do they do French and Spanish etc as well or just Welsh? It reminds me of when Latin was taught; there was no suggestion it would ever be used, it was an academic exercise.

I agree and I reckon I'd be ok (people manage fine with numerous children!). I'm pretty sure it won't come to that though, unless there are over 50 siblings.

I'm not sure but I think Welsh is probably the only compulsory one. I imagine they have the option to do another too (like I studied French and German). I think it'll be pretty useful if they decide to stay here as you hear it a fair bit now and all correspondence is sent out in both languages but it'll be useless if they move away! Although learning it from a young age will help them learn other languages in the future so it will still be helpful in that respect; I'm sure I was taught that if you learn another language before around age 6 or 7 it rewires part of your brain, making foreign languages much easier to learn in the future. I imagine they'll be much more fluent in it having started at three than I am in French (which I have never needed to use!)!

Yeah, we have Gaelic language state schools up here too. They are immersion schools so no English spoken - I think the reason a lot of people are keen on them is due to the positives of being bilingual on brain pathways (?) more than the second language itself. It's not something I'd be keen on, but it's popular. I'd hate to home school!

Yeah it's true that the bilingual brain is more advanced than the monolingual, though the pathways shut around 4-5. After that they have to learn it much as we do as opposed to absorbing it. Although they learn quicker. This is why my speech therapist friend despairs at bilingual parents not bothering at home. By the time you hit school it's too late!

Ah, interesting! I didn't know!

Ladies, some toilet training advice please?

DS, started toilet training at the beginning of June. Off his own bat, he started announcing that he had a pee coming. We would hurtle off to the loo and job done. This carried on for 2+ months. Poos were a little hit and miss and he was mostly dry overnight too.

Then it started going badly, we all got stressed with it and we popped him back into pull ups.

We started again last week, instigated by us this time. He is unlikely to tell us but if we take him to the loo regularly then he will sometimes go. But there are still a lot of accidents - his bladder control seems awful at the moment! At home (because I can't cope with all the extra mess with a baby too) he is in pants and then a pull up over them so to contain the mess.

We tried chocolate buttons, which didn't really work. Now he has a new box of lego in the bathroom and each successful pee/poo means he can choose a piece of lego. And a bonus piece if he tells us in advance.

But whilst he is delighted with that, he still has so many accidents. I reckon there are c7 pairs of pants in the washing machine so far today.

Arrrrgh! What should we do?!?! He's going to be in pull ups at school at this rate... The rational part of me knows that he has had a lot to deal with in the past 4m: new baby, mummy in hospital for a week, new room at nursery, mummy with pneumonia for 3 weeks...
The irrational part of me frets!

My friend's June boy didn't toilet train until after Christmas the year he was 3. Drove her utterly to distraction. But then he took to it really well.

Nighttime dryness is hormonal, so totally unrelated to daytime, and can't be 'trained', it just is what it is.

We really struggled with headstrong DD as she was totally bloody obstinate and is now only just moving from potty to loo (and we only cracked poo relatively recently after a rather traumatic poo-covered night incident!).

I'm sure he will get there, but I appreciate how frustrating it is (especially with a girl as they're apparently 'easy' to train. Ha! ).

Thanks Hungry :)

Am sure he will figure it out eventually but it is so frustrating! And keeping that hidden from ds is such a challenge!

He used to fidget pre pee and would tell us if he had an accident. At the moment he barely bats an eyelid.

These children do my head in. Want want want. Never reflect on why they actually have. Christmas is a tantrum waiting to happen. Why haven't I got this and that?!

DD asked Santa for snow when she met him!

And it turns out that the class bear is a real thing. I'd only ever heard about it on here. Exciting for her, not so much for us!

DD has gone from doing fairly random drawings to suddenly being able to draw people (better than I can) with all the details down to eyebrows, fingers and shoes. Very strange! And she can now write her name independently . It's fascinating how they just suddenly get things.

Ha yes, Polly can write her surname but still says it's too long:) bet she would have struggled with my preferred seraphina!

The people drawings are weird, it's like a Hockney interpretation of what people should look like.

Yesterday I took her into town. She walked from Waterloo to the London eye to Big Ben then Trafalgar Square and then to Piccadilly Circus for the gruffalo in the theatre. Then back on the tube to my friends house party and then an hour on tubes and buses home. Must have walked four miles or so. I was exhausted. How was she still standing?!

Ha!

Drawings are the waiting for embarrassing things to be said all over again. People get a big tummy or a small tummy (fairly accurately!). Long legs or short legs.

What was the show like?

DD can walk for miles. I hope DS is the same. My niece and nephews hate walking, they start moaning after two minutes!

Gruffalo was good. Definitely for the three plus market. 55 minutes and lots of songs etc to extend it from a book you can read in ten minutes.

Walking is all about motivation; 3 miles with no distractions and stops will never happen. 3 miles with plenty to look at and a cake stop is fine!

This thread fell down my list a bit!

3 1/2 year check done. All good and DD is 91st centile for height and weight!

We had her nursery Christmas concert last week. I got very emotional! She's a performer at home and she certainly wasn't shy on stage either (I wasn't sure how she'd be)! We really enjoyed it, it was lovely seeing them all together. It feels strange that a number of them are already 4!

After weeks of illness between us and various other things I've decided to get them vaccinated against chickenpox. It's booked, so I'm pretty certain now after months of indecisiveness and then deciding against it! My main concern was it not lasting but there's a place here that will test immunity so I've figured that I can get them tested as teenagers and vaccinate again if necessary. DD will not be happy as she's had a number of vaccinations recently and she also claims to want chickenpox (thanks to tv programmes she's seen!). Though knowing my luck they'll probably be in the 2% that still get it.

How are you all doing?

I wasn't aware there was a 3.5 check or that we still used percentiles at this age! I did do that thing that predicts their height and it said Polly would be 5ft4 which I don't consider acceptable as I'm 5ft8 and Sean 6ft. But all his sisters are 5ft so maybe mine are doomed.

Good news re chicken pox. Everyone I know locally has had it. A handful got spots a week later as it's live so maybe one to avoid just before Christmas:)

They should be listed in your red book (I imagine exact times vary according to area) and yes they do! She's been signed off the HV books now as it's the last check they do.

According to the predictor 6'6" DH would have been average! Apparently he wasn't significantly tall as a child, he just carried on growing! So if that's the case, DD will be very tall. She takes after him so I think she will be. She's one of the tallest in her class and also one of the youngest (quite a few of them are already 4!). DH's family are all tall. He has a female cousin who is 6'2"! I'm quite average at 5'6" but I'm short in my family (my little sister towers over me!).

Haha, thanks, they had it yesterday ! I wouldn't be too bothered as we're having a quiet Christmas at home for the first time ever and I'd rather side effects be when DD is off nursery. She was ill and really miserable on Christmas Day a couple of years ago, hopefully any side effects can't be worse than that. The nurse said to keep an eye on the green pages (I think?!) for up to date research and recommendations on boosters in adulthood etc but that it might become a routine vaccination anyway.

oh I lost you guys again.

We've seen santa about 5 times this year already. The most amusing was DH dressed as santa for playgroup and neither DDs recognised him - he didn't even try to change his voice (he's English living here in Scotland so quite obvious).

Last night was a lovely torchlight parade through the village to the church for a carol concert and a quick chat with Santa round the back of church. Am loving creating these new family traditions.

We've been to a Santa train in the Lakes today. It was bloody brilliant! We had a singalong and all sorts. The gifts were great too (we've found them hit and miss over our Santa experiences!).

I remember being told at DD's 2 year check that there would be one at 3. We've not had it yet though. DD is very tall and has been in 4-5 clothes for a few months now. We are both tall though (5' 11" and 6' 1") so it's not entirely unexpected.

We are having Christmas at home and eating buffet food all day! None of us are arsed about a traditional Christmas roast, so we are going to have the type of food we DO like! 😀

I'm doing roast lamb on Boxing Day instead once we have got to Glasgow. With pigs in blankets as we can't forego those!

I'm amazed we've not had CP through the small people yet. We can't afford the vaccine after the meningitis one, so they will have to get it, sadly (though if they dodge it until April I can afford it then!). See how that goes!

Glad you enjoyed it! We did a Santa train last year and it was brilliant too with all the entertainment and decent gifts based on age! Nearly did it this year but we are three hours away from the one we did and worried that one closer might not live up to it. This year we did an experience type thing where we decorated gingerbread and met the reindeer. DD loved meeting Santa, DS hated it (but he loved the gingerbread and reindeer!)! Everyone got a decent sized cute cuddly penguin so not personalised but which they both love (DS especially as he's a massive penguin fan!).

Your Christmas plan sounds ace! No idea what we're having as DH will leave it till last minute and there'll be nothing left in the shops but it'll be very relaxed and we won't be going overboard with stuff. I'm vegetarian so I've no idea what I'll end up with.

I'm surprised we haven't had it yet either, especially as someone came into the toddler group when they were contagious. Knowing our luck they'd come down with it when we're about to go on holiday (have booked to go to Center Parcs again, this time for a week as we enjoyed it so much). Actually, knowing my luck they probably still will!

Merry Christmas you guys! I'm so crap at posting here but usually check in a few times a week and it's aces to still have you around after so long...

Joe has enjoyed Xmas immensely. It's been 100% trucks and cars on the gift front from all corners so he's stoked. It's been fun that they are properly into Xmas this year, huh. Mostly I love him lots today cause he slept till 745am this morning!

Have an ace rest of the holiday break....

Merry Christmas! 🎄😀

DD has been sleeping til almost / just gone 8 for the last week or so as she's been getting over a sickness bug followed by what sounded like a touch of croup for the last fortnight or so. Poor chick.

Her and DS just seem to want to play with each other's toys; thankfully without too much fighting. Yet!

We are back in Scotland now as I'm at work this week (boo!) so we've all come up, which is nice. 😁 I'm not keen on being here alone. Too used to having company now!

Merry Christmas from Scotland as well!

Busy busy few days means I'm dreaming of a day when we can just wear our jammies and play with all the new toys. Everyone went a bit mental (except the inlaws) and bought both girls far too many toys.

We're now officially into Barbie- I'm just hoping that she might still want to be a nuclear scientist or a doctor rather than just a Princess

And more greetings from Scotland!

We have had a happy and gentle Christmas, mostly avoiding the wild weather and keeping warm in front of the fire and playing with toys.

DS was very sweet and didn't notice presents under the tree for several minutes after we went into the living room - and because he wanted to play with stuff as he opened it (sometimes for AGES) it took til mid afternoon to finish unwrapping everything! DD was, of course, oblivious but happy

Hope everyone has had a peaceful Christmas x

Oh, but Barbie ?!?!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Our babies are 4 - FOUR!!!! - this year. How the hell did that happen?!

Has everyone in England / Wales applied for schools now? The 15th Jan deadline is fast-approaching!